Family Policy: A Relational Approach

The purpose of this book is to propose a new way of looking at the family and family policy in the context of a society that is in the process of globalization. It aims above all at challenging the prevailing way in which family public policy is understood and practiced worldwide today, that is what Donati calls the lib-lab configuration. Empirical research has shown that family policies today are involved in a number of vicious cycles that generate more problems than they solve and in some cases lead to total policy failure. The book presents alternatives to the ways in which the family is considered and treated today. It seeks to review the relations between families and public policies from the viewpoint of relational sociology. This viewpoint is 'differential’, that is it highlights what makes a difference in building family relations in one way or another. The originality of this volume rests in its analysis of the present situation, its challenge to current public policies and the proposals of new directions towards a relational configuration that Donati calls societal, plural and subsidiary family policies. Approaching the topic from the family’s point of view, the book operates through employing relational distinctions, highlighting the differences, that are hidden in the field observed, often unexpressed in the face of a colonizing assumption that the family is the mere product of society.